


A Kind Gesture

by Author_Incognito



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Acts of Kindness, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mental Health Issues, Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-09-15 14:53:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9239951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Author_Incognito/pseuds/Author_Incognito
Summary: In which Credence and Queenie meet each other by chance one day





	1. Chapter 1

   He smells it from nearly a block away. Thick, savory foods that he can practically taste in his mouth. Not that he would know exactly how it would taste, considering that Ma had always been extra careful as to not let them have anything that was too sweet. But the smell of it is so delightful that he can just imagine how wonderful it would be.

    Credence absentmindedly walks toward the smell, as though his feet are on auto pilot. He doesn’t know precisely why he is moving towards it. After all, he doesn’t have any money so he has no way of actually buying anything. But, still he is drawn to it like a moth to a light.

    Whenever he reaches the place where the pleasant scents are coming from, he stops in the middle of the sidewalk and stares at it. The name itself is simple- Kowalski’s, it says- but the inside is fascinating. The display windows show various foods molded into creatures that Credence has a hard time believing that anyone could think them up. And further in he can see shelves packed to the brim with food. And going by the amount of people that were in the bakery, he personally doubted that he was the only one that had been drawn to it.

  He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He had never smelled anything so amazing in his entire life. He longed to go inside and take one of those delightful creations for himself. But . . . he has no money, so that dream was quickly shattered into a million pieces. He sighs heavily and prepares to turn around and walk away when the bakery door opens. The bell above the door gives a slight jingle, and the scent of the inside of the bakery grows even stronger, practically overpowering all of his other scenes

   A woman with short golden curls and a smile encompassing half of her face steps out, carrying numerous boxes in her arms.  “You take care, Mr. Kowalski!” She looks back the way that she came and shouts to someone near the back of the shop. The owner, Credence guesses.

  She turns away from the shop, looking at Credence for the first time. She gasps and almosts drops the boxes that she’s holding.

   He almost walks toward her to help her. Almost. He still finds it quite difficult to trust people after what happened. And the woman has noticed him. Surely that means that she wants to hurt him in some way.

   She walks toward him and he flinches. She sets the boxes down and reaches a hand up to his face – to slap it? To caress it? He’s not for sure - but she seems to think better of it and stops halfway.

   “Hi sweetie,” she says to him, and brings her hand down to her side. And her voice is soft. Not cold like Ma’s, or calculating like Mr. Graves. “My names is Queenie. Would you like something to eat?” She gestures down at the boxes on the sidewalk.

   He freezes, unsure of how to respond. He can’t remember the last time he ate and he is starving. But Ma’s voice is in the back of his head. Telling him _don’t take things from strangers_ and _you don’t deserve that food you don’t deserve it you don’t deserve it you don’t deserve it._

Queenie’s smile falters. She places a hand on his shoulder and he hears himself whimper. “It’s all right, honey. I’m not going to hurt you.”

 _But everyone always does_ he thinks to himself. And he’s not for sure if he’s just imagining it or not but he could’ve sworn that he saw some tears start to form in Queenie’s eyes.

 She kneels down, opening one of the boxes to reveal breads shaped like a snake . . . or a bird? He’s not for sure, but before he can get a closer look she takes one out and splits it in two. “Here. You have half, I have half.” And he can’t help himself anymore. Ma’s voice is still in the back of his mind but he’s so hungry.

  She gives him his half. It seems to be slightly bigger than hers, but he doesn’t mention anything. Queenie has already been so nice to him, and he doesn’t want to do anything that could ruin that.

 Before he knows it he has eaten it all, and he longs for more. But that is being greedy and that is a sin and there’s Ma’s voice in the back of his again saying _you know where people who sin go to don’t you Credence? You know that and you shouldn’t be like them._

He shivers in the warm weather. _Go away,_ he thinks, _you’re dead you’re not supposed to be here anymore why are you still inside my head?_ He pulls at his hair, wanting to pull the ghost of Ma from his mind.

  He feels a hand on his knee and he jumps. Queenie is looking at him, concerned. He had forgotten that she was there. He must have looked so stupid.

  “Would you like to come home with me? I can fix you something else to eat, and you can rest.” Queenie says suddenly.

 It does sound nice. But he doesn’t know what Queenie wants and people always seem to want something from him.

 “Oh, I don’t want anything.” Queenie says, almost as if she had just read his mind. “Just think of it as a kind gesture.”

She stands up and reaches a hand out to him. He hesitates for a few minutes, but then he takes. The selfish want of being around at least one person that was kind to him overpowering any other decisions that he could’ve made.

“oh, wait until you see my sister. You’ll love her.” She says as she leads him toward her home. And Credence finds himself smiling at her, thinking that – maybe – good things could happen to someone like him after all. 


	2. Chapter 2

They reach Queenie’s home in next to no time at all, and once she opens the door Credence is absolutely blown away by what’s inside. He’s not astounded by the things themselves- after all, they are simple, standard stuff that one would find in any home – but rather the colors. At the church everything was dark and subdued, so that they would remain closer to God that way and wouldn’t think highly of themselves. But here everything is vibrant and colorful and so imaginative and it is just amazing. 

He feels Queenie watching him looking around with wonder. He looks over at her, wanting to say something – anything - about how fascinating this place is, but the words get caught in his throat and he can’t speak.

Queenie places the boxes filled with all those delightful foods on the middle of a table and points toward something behind him. “Have a seat, honey. I’m just going to be fixing up something for us to eat. My sister should be home any minute now.” 

He looks behind him and sees a relatively small, but still extremely comfortable sofa behind him. He sits down on it, sitting as close to the edge as he possibly can. He doesn’t want to take up too much space. To be even more of a bother than he already is. 

He doesn’t know exactly what to do. He can hear Queenie in the kitchen, softly humming to herself as she cooked. He feels like he should do something to help her, but he doesn’t know what and he certainly doesn’t want to get in her way. Ma always said that interrupting someone whilst they were occupied by something was almost as bad as not helping people at all. 

In the end he sits there guiltily in silence, feeling that if Queenie wanted him to do something then she would ask him to. But she never did, so he simply busied himself with fiddling with the sleeves of his threadbare jacket. 

Not too much longer he hears footsteps coming towards the door and Queenie gives an excited “Tina’s home!” Credence supposes that this Tina must be the sister that she mentioned before. He looks down at his shoes, all scuffed up and a little too small for his liking but Ma always said that he shouldn’t complain about that because at least he didn’t have to go barefoot like so many of those other kids passed through the church. After all, Ma had always told him, he certainly didn’t have it as bad as they did and for that he should be grateful.

The door to the apartment opens and he hears someone give a deep sigh. “Queenie,” begins a familiar voice and Credence looks up with the start, hardly daring to believe it. But it is her standing there. The kind woman who helped him before, and Credence’s breath catches in his throat. She hasn’t seen him yet, instead she’s looking at the boxes that Queenie brought home from the bakery. “I told you not to keep seeing him. You know that only bad will –“ As Tina finally looks away from the boxes her gaze is brought toward him, and she stops mid-sentence.

She stands still, staring at him with wide eyes and an open mouth. Credence curls back up into the seat, unsure of what he’s doing wrong. “oh my god.” Tina whispers, finally breaking her silence. “Oh my god! Oh, my god, Credence!” her voice gets louder and louder until she’s practically shouting and tears are streaming down her face. Credence remains perched on the sofa, believing this all to be a dream. It has to be. Too many good things have happened to him today for it to be real.

She rushes toward him, and automatically Credence flinches back but she only wraps her arms tightly around him. He freezes in her arms. He can’t remember ever receiving this much affection, and frankly he doesn’t know how to respond to it. But either way it feels so nice and he leans in closer to her. Credence closes his eyes, reveling in this moment, not wanting it to end. And when he opens them again there is Queenie standing before them. “See?” She says softly. “I told you that you would love my sister.” And with that Credence feels tears start to form in his eyes and he buries his head into Tina’s shoulder.

**Author's Note:**

> I might continue this i'm not for sure


End file.
